Concerns raised over summer book assignment in North Ridgeville schools

A summer reading project for the 10th-grade honors English class involving the book “The God of Small Things,” by Arundhati Roy, has one parent so concerned over content of the tome that it was brought up before the North Ridgeville School Board meeting.
Maria Sycz, who previously served on the school board for 10 years, approached the panel Aug. 19 to discuss the book that won a Man Booker Prize in 1997, an award given to original works of fiction written in English but published in the United Kingdom.
A synopsis on the Man Booker Prize website said “in magical and poetic language, the novel paints a vivid picture of life in a small rural Indian town, the thoughts and feelings of the two small children and the complexity and hypocrisy of the adults in their world.”
Sycz said that while she does realize an alternate book could have been given if there were objections, she said it is a very difficult decision to make because as a parent “you try to stay out of matters that could place your child in an awkward position.”
Sycz said that she read the novel to better understand why her daughter and other students may have a hard time discussing the content of the book in class.
“The book, in my opinion, is poorly written and has some extreme adult subject matter that may or may not be suitable for 15-year-old adolescent students,” she said. “Although the book was assigned to the honors English (class) this does not mean that all of these students need to be subjected to the material that is included in this novel.”
According to Sycz, the topics discussed in the book include marital physical abuse, cheating spouses and divorce, alcoholism, a 7-year-old child being molested, stories about rape, kidnappings, beatings and incest between twins.
While there are some thought provoking themes in the book that include love, family, society, innocence, fear, identity and morality, students seem to be focusing more on the controversial topics, Sycz said.
“I do not believe that at the age of 15 or so these students will completely grasp those underlying subjects,” she said. “I truly hope that in the future, the English Department will find more suitable material that the students will want to read and discuss with each other like so many other books have inspired them to do.”
School officials stated that the English Department chose the book as it was highly recommended by several organizations, including The National Council of Teachers of English.
“These are contemporary themes, and that’s one of the things we want to be able to do; use contemporary themes to engage students in thought related to their belief system,” said Superintendent Jim Powell. “It is not to counter familial belief systems, it is to explore those.”
Powell was concerned with the book being assigned as part of a summer reading program instead of during the school year since students did not get the opportunity to discuss it the way they would during the school year.
“We need to evaluate things, and if we use these kinds of texts, we need to have the ability to sit down with students and talk with them about it and use them as a teaching tool, more than using it just as an assignment,” he said.